The present invention relates to a music performance assistance apparatus for visually indicating, on a display screen, an appropriate or model manner of performing a chord on a predetermined musical instrument, and a computer program therefor. For example, the present invention concerns an improved music performance assistance apparatus which can visually indicate an appropriate manner of playing or manipulating a musical instrument to perform a particular chord in response to user designation of any one of chord names displayed on the display screen in progression order of a music piece, and which can visually indicate respective appropriate manners of playing the musical instrument for a plurality of chords.
For beginners, it is often very difficult to master step by step how to play a musical instrument by actually manipulating the musical instrument while merely viewing a textbook having music scores and the like written thereon. Thus, with the widespread use of personal computers, there have recently emerged so-called music performance assistance systems, each of which allows any interested user to master how to play an electronic musical instrument by the aide of a computer connected with the musical instrument. Each of the conventionally-known music performance assistance apparatus employed in such systems displays, on a predetermined display device, a xe2x80x9cchord selecting screenxe2x80x9d indicating chord roots (e.g., pitch names like xe2x80x9cCxe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9cExe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9cG#xe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9cFxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cAxe2x80x9d) and chord types (e.g., xe2x80x9cmajorxe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9cminorxe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9cseventhxe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9caugmentedxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cdiminishedxe2x80x9d) so that a user can select desired ones of the chord roots and chord types indicated on the chord selecting screen. The music performance assistance apparatus identifies one particular chord on the basis of the combination of the user-selected chord root and type; for example, when the user-selected chord root and type are xe2x80x9cCxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cmajorxe2x80x9d, respectively, the assistance apparatus identifies the chord as a xe2x80x9cC major chordxe2x80x9d. Then, the music performance assistance apparatus displays, on the display device, an appropriate manner of playing or manipulating the musical instrument to perform the identified chord, i.e. a model instrument-playing manner for the identified chord; for example, in the case of a string instrument such as a guitar, the apparatus displays fingers to be used to depress strings for the chord performance. Namely, every time a need arises, the user executes input operation for selecting both the root and type of a particular chord for which he or she wants to learn the appropriate manner of manipulating the musical instrument so that the corresponding model instrument-playing manner is displayed on the display device. Then, by visually ascertaining the displayed model instrument-playing manner, the user can learn how to perform the particular chord on the musical instrument. Namely, the conventional performance assistance apparatus are designed to display only one model instrument-playing manner for a single chord at a time in response to designation by the user, so as to provide visual music performance assistance or guide to the user.
As set forth above, with the conventionally-known music performance assistance apparatus, it is necessary for the user to ascertain what kinds of chords are used in a desired music piece and then perform predetermined chord-selecting input operation so as to cause the display device to display a model instrument-playing manner for a particular one of the chords whenever the user wants to refer to the model instrument-playing manner for visual performance assistance; besides, the model instrument-playing manner only for one chord, not for a plurality of different chords, can be displayed at a time. Thus, if the user wants to refer to respective model instrument-playing manners for two or more chords, the user has to interrupt the performance to execute the chord-selecting input operation for each of the chords, which would unavoidably result in poor usability of the assistance apparatus. Namely, the user must execute the chord-selecting input operation as many times as the number of chords for which the model instrument-playing manners are to be displayed on the display device; for example, in case the user wants to see the model instrument-playing manners for all the chords used in a music piece, the chord-selecting input operation must be executed a great many times correspondingly, which would thus disadvantageously become extremely time-consuming, troublesome and complex tasks on the part of the user.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a technique of allowing a user to refer to a model instrument-playing manner for any desired chord with only simple operation or instruction.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a technique of simultaneously displaying respective model instrument-playing manners for a plurality of chords to thereby allow a user to promptly ascertain appropriate manners of performing the individual chords on a musical instrument.
According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a music performance assistance apparatus which comprises: a display device; a supply device that supplies the display device with basic screen display data for displaying a basic screen including a plurality of chord names to be indicated on the basic screen, the display device displaying the basic screen indicating the plurality of chord names on the basis of the basic screen display data supplied by the supply device; a storage device that stores, for each chord, playing-manner screen display data for displaying a playing manner screen indicative of a model playing manner corresponding to the chord; and a processor coupled with the display device and the storage device. The processor is adapted to: select a chord name from among the plurality of chord names indicated on the basic screen displayed on the display device, on the basis of an instruction by a user; and read out, from the storage device, the playing-manner screen display data corresponding to the selected chord name. In this music performance apparatus, the display device displays, along with the basic screen, a playing manner screen indicative of an appropriate or model playing manner corresponding to the selected chord name on the basis of the playing-manner screen display data read out by the processor from the storage device.
Thus, by the user only giving an instruction for selecting a chord mane, a playing manner screen indicative of a model playing manner corresponding to the selected chord name (i.e., an appropriate manner of performing the chord on a predetermined musical instrument, such as an appropriate manner of operating strings of a guitar) is displayed on the display device along with the basic screen. In this way, a model playing manner for any user-desired chord can be referred to on the display device with simple user operation. As an example, the basic screen may be one listing names of chords used in a selected music piece in accordance with progression of the selected music piece. Therefore, with only simple user operation of selecting a desired one of the chord names indicated on the basic screen, the playing manner screens indicative of the model playing manners for any desired chords can be displayed in accordance with progression of the music piece, which is very useful. The display device may simultaneously display the playing manner screens for a plurality of different chords. Further, the playing manner screen may be displayed in a highlighted fashion for improved viewability.
The present invention may be implemented as a music performance assistance system comprising a server apparatus and client terminal interconnected via a communication network.
Namely, according to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a server apparatus connectable with a client terminal, which comprises: a first storage section that stores basic screen display data for allowing the client terminal to display a basic screen including a plurality of chord names; a transmission section that transmits the basic screen display data to the client terminal; a second storage section that stores, for each chord, playing-manner screen display data for displaying a playing manner screen indicative of a model playing manner corresponding to the chord; a reception section that receives, from the client terminal, request information requesting the playing manner screen corresponding to a desired one of the plurality of chord names included in the basic screen; and a control section that, in response to the request information received by the reception section, reads out, from the second storage section, the playing-manner screen display data for the playing manner screen corresponding to the desired chord name and transmits the read-out playing-manner screen display data to the client terminal.
According to still another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a client terminal apparatus connectable with a server apparatus, which comprises: a display device; a reception section that receives basic screen display data for displaying a basic screen including a plurality of chord names, the display device displaying the basic screen indicating the plurality of chord names on the basis of the basic screen display data received by the reception section; and a control section. The control section performs control to: select, on the basis of an instruction by a user, a chord name from among the plurality of chord names indicated on the basic screen displayed on the display device; transmit, to the server apparatus, request information requesting a playing manner screen indicative of a model playing manner corresponding to the selected chord name; and receive playing-manner screen display data transmitted by the server apparatus in response to the request information for displaying the playing manner screen. In this client terminal apparatus, the display device displays, along with the basic screen, the playing manner screen indicative of the model playing manner corresponding to the selected chord name on the basis of the playing-manner screen display data received from the server apparatus.
The present invention may be constructed and implemented not only as the apparatus invention as discussed above but also as a method invention. Also, the present invention may be arranged and implemented as a software program for execution by a processor such as a computer or DSP, as well as a storage medium storing such a program. Furthermore, the processor used in the present invention may comprise a dedicated processor with dedicated logic built in hardware as well as a computer or other general-purpose type processor capable of executing a desired software program.
While the described embodiments represent the preferred form of the present invention, it is to be understood that various modifications will occur to those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the invention. The scope of the present invention is therefore to be determined solely by the appended claims.